Gustave Flaubert, Paul De Man, Margaret Cohen, Carmen Martin Gaite - Madame Bovary: Provincial Lives

Pros: 'Tis a Classic novel. Well written (style-wise)
Cons: You really want to shake Emma until she grows up!

I bet you never thought in a million years someone could ever draw a comparison between Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Flaubert’s classic novel Madame Bovary. But, as I sit here looking at my Buffy action figure, perched on my...

Pros: Engrossing cultural critique
Cons: ... which can be overpowering

I first read Madame Bovary when I was in high school, and it shocked my impressionable teenage mind in a way I cannot quite describe. Suffice it to say, the book which outraged contemporary French readers, scandalized Leo Tolstoy, and spawned the ...

Pros: Insightful Social commentary!
Cons: can get a bit slow at times.

For those of you that think Madame Bovary is just a book about a woman and her failedsexual fantasies, you are missing an important part of the work.

Gustave Flaubert uses a town of prototypical Bourgeoisie characters in order...

Pros: Wonderful characters, beautiful prose, Emma Bovary
Cons: Can be a bit wordy. Not a lot of dialogue or action.

Charles Bovary is a struggling Doctor, married to an older woman he supposes he loves, living out his daily life as one must: working, sleeping, eating. Mediocrity is what he has strived for, mediocrity is what he has attained. Though possessing a mild ...

Pros: in-depth characters; the club foot surgery is great!
Cons: very frustrating Madame B

... you might enjoy this book. Personally, I found it tiresome, but then again, that's me, modern woman who actually takes action.

My friend and I are reading our way through a list of the classics, to widen our perspective and realize what...

Pros: Very serious, very easy to understand, just a great book!
Cons: A little too serious at times, you can get really mad at the characters

Madame Bovary is Gustave Flaubert's classic novel of a woman who marries a man she soon looses her passions for. It tales of this woman's twisted means of pleasing herself, and her strange sense of what happieness is.

The story describes in...

Pros: Page turner, Masterpiece of French Literature
Cons: None

Gustave Flaubert lived from 1821-1880. He is considered to be an exemplary French "realist" author and MADAME BOVARY is a "tour de force" is this genre: simply stated, his masterpiece. He put five years of work into composing and...

Pros: stylistically beautiful, interesting plot
Cons: unsympathetic characters

Madame Bovary is a classic novel, and if you read it, you'll understand why. For a book written well over a hundred years ago, it is incredibly modern, dealing with issues of marital fidelity and financial difficulties. Just one warning: Emma, the main...

Pros: very precise criticism
Cons: none

Gustave Flaubert is known for his preciseness in writing, which is exactly how I would describe Madame Bovary. Flaubert ingeniously crafts his novel as a blatant criticism of the shallow and misguided bourgeoisie.

What I find particularly...

Pros: beautiful prose and vivid descriptions that make one feel like he/she is actually there
Cons: none

It is widely believed that it took Flaubert 5 years to complete Mademe Bovary. His fascination with detail is clearly portrayed in his descriptions of events such as "the ball at the magistrate's house," "the operation" and the...